You Are Viewing These 3 Core Beliefs All Wrong & What To Do?Instead

In sales, having an unwavering belief in yourself and the outcomes your solution & company can deliver, makes all the difference. But belief can be a tricky thing.

The truth is that belief is a way for the brain to make sense of the world. If we had to reconstruct our brains every time new info comes to it, I am not sure we would have survived as a species. So, we put it into existing frameworks already laid down. The real kicker is that some of our beliefs are not based on fact (well, a lot are not). The question that comes into focus is are these beliefs serving us to achieve more sales, income and impact with our customers? Probably not.

Merriam-Webster puts it this way —

“Something that is accepted, considered to be true, or held as an opinion?:?something believed”

Here are some well ingrained beliefs that I’ve seen in coaching salespeople and leaders over the years:

What if you believed that money was a bad thing and not to be talked about? ??Do you think it might be difficult to talk about money with customers?

What if you’ve been told all of your life that you were shy??? Would it be more difficult to speak up in a meeting with customers or co-workers?

What if you’ve been told by your first boss that you suck at sales??? Do you think you might believe that you actually suck at sales and maybe that might be contributing to your sub-par performance?

What if you do cold outreach via phone and you weren’t getting any results??? Might you believe that cold phone outreach does not work or that you aren’t good at it?

You can see how these beliefs not only impact our sales and business success, but our lives as well.

Can we change these beliefs? The short answer is yes.

In sales, there are three pillars that you need to succeed:

1. Belief in yourself
2. Belief in your company
3. Belief in your solution

1./Belief In Yourself (the most important)

Even the most successful people are going to be shaken by events and situations that can test competence and confidence. Don’t believe for a moment that there exists supermen and superwomen who don’t get bothered by anything. They don’t exist. We are all human.

You must first know and through practice, believe that you are worthy of success and deserve it just as much as the next person. This is your foundation to success. Write it down, hang out with people who affirm this belief and are supportive, & just say it out loud. Everyday.

Then, start tackling and challenging those long held, misinformed beliefs about yourself. Jot them down. It could look something like this:

• Long held belief ? I suck at sales
• New belief ? I am a work in progress who is getting better at sales each and everyday
• Action ? Identifying some gaps in my skills and working on them by joining a sales community, hiring a coach and/or taking some online training

Next, decide what you want? Get clear on a game plan. Without a plan, you are going to flail about. You’ll get somewhere but it probably won’t be anywhere near where you say you want to be. I advise salespeople to be proactive and based on goals that you’ve laid out with your manager (first 30 days), work backwards from there. Put together your playbook for success. If you’ve got a game plan, you’ll feel more confident. In this playbook:

Include:

Your personal mission & vision?— Why you do what you do. Your why. Not the actual achievement itself (the destination) but how accomplishing the goal will make you feel or what it can do to have more impact in your life. Define your standards. Be maniacal about them. Don’t apologize. You do you and ignore the critics, hate and naysayers.

The WHAT?— Yes, define your goals. What level of income and how much do you need to sell to get it? What things can more financial success provide? So, not just the sales number or income goal. Look at what you really want and care about. Maybe freedom, security, using that success to impact others who are less fortunate, starting a side business & providing jobs to others, or whatever (it comes down to what you really care about). Think big and dig deep.

The WHO?— Who will you target? Get specific on a niche and be as specific as you can. Know that when you talk to a CMO in a medical device company with revenue between $50M-100M, you know you are targeting the right person and it’s someone that only you can help.

The HOW?— How will you reach them? What channel or channels do you believe will work best to engage them? Be flexible as you will test some things that may not work. Focus on engagement and connection not activity (calls, demos, meetings).

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.”―?Henry Ford

2./Belief In Your Company

Companies are not perfect. After all, they are made up of people. So, you’re going to have to look objectively at the company you work for? Don’t lead with emotion when looking at your situation.

Simply saying, “This company sucks” is neither productive nor useful.

I get it. I’ve been in those unhealthy sales cultures that look the other way when it comes to unethical behavior, lead with carrots and sticks and encourage a lot of activity to look busy and fall into the numbers game. Sometimes you have a bad boss or a co-worker that has it out for you.

That being said, here are some reasons you may want to head towards the exit:

• Your health is being impacted
• Your income potential is severely impacted or capped
• The culture is toxic and it’s contagious

But you first have to ask yourself is it my company or is it me? Are you using your company as a scapegoat for your own issues? Salespeople tend to blame their organizations too quickly and not ask the hard questions that require us to look in the mirror.

So if it’s not you and it’s not the (3) warning signs that may require you to leave, then you can also ask some thoughtful and objective questions to evaluate your current situation like:

1. What does my company do really well?
2. Are we successful at delivering on that promise?
3. Am I surrounded by people who truly believe in the mission — both leaders & peers?
4. Am I supported by leadership not just in words but in actions?

Look, there are a ton of options out there for people that sell for a living. The grass isn’t always greener as you know. Plenty of salespeople have jumped ship only to have been fooled again by the lure of great money, benefits and upside.

Don’t jump ship just yet. Keep asking good questions.

3./Belief In Your Products & Services

Don’t believe your solutions are worth the price (devoid of value) or actually solve a problem? Ouch. How are you going to sell it? Most can’t or wouldn’t. Maybe the product or service promises X but never delivers. Maybe the product development group is not listening to what is happening on the ground with customers and doing a poor job of prioritizing the right features.

But is this a red herring? Are you using it as another excuse for your inconsistent or poor performance? Sounds harsh but go back and ask the hard questions. Get a mirror out and get real before you do anything else.

Let’s assume that it’s not you and the product doesn’t actually suck. Start asking these questions:

• What does my product or service actually solve in terms of a problem our customers are having? Is this something I can discover internally or with conversations with existing customers?
• Is there something that our product and service does not do well? Can I be transparent to customers about those weaknesses and build more trust as opposed to saying how great and perfect the product is while those weaknesses are are glaring and obvious?
• Is there a differentiator that I am not seeing that could be leveraged? Is this something I can discover by shadowing the best salespeople or even asking current customers what benefit they are deriving from the current solution?

Don’t be quick to judge the situation negatively. Be objective and smart.

Wrapping it Up

It’s clear that belief is critical to sales success. But there is?false belief. It’s a well ingrained belief that is not grounded in fact. If you knew something wasn’t true, wouldn’t you want to jettison that belief? Especially if it no longer served you and your success? Or would you want to hold onto it to avoid the commitment and dedication that success demands? Are you going to take the red pill or the blue pill (1999 movie: The Matrix)?

The goal is to create solid foundational belief. It takes objectivity, lack of emotion, seeking clarity and gathering data from various sources through asking the right questions and leaving your ego aside.

Do this and you’ll begin to move the needle. The other option is to remain in denial or jump ship when things aren’t going your way.

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Andy Carlton helps salespeople and sales teams become high performers. He has the accolades to prove it: over $55M in contracts, part of one of the fastest growing companies in the country as cited by INC Magazine, for 4 consecutive years, launched a marketing SaaS platform that was awarded Cisco Innovation Award, and sold to some of the most prominent CEO’s for the first e-commerce startup in commercial internet history. Andy’s mission is clear: to remove the mistakes of the overworked and stressed-out sales culture and replace it with one based on intention and healthy motivation. This has led to?top performers?who love what they do and get the highest results without brutal sales training tactics nor 12-hour daily grinds.

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